If you and your staff have not yet registered for the upcoming October 5-6 Leadership Retreat, I want to urge you to do so as soon as possible. We have an outstanding program for this retreat--a program which addresses several of the key issues that are facing our membership. First, Dr. Fotina Zirps, one of the most widely respected experts in the field of quality assurance, will be addressing the role of the CEO and leadership staff in setting and enforcing standards of quality throughout their organization--a topic that is of critical interest in addressing recent concerns raised about the quality of service provided by private agencies. Secondly, Peter Goldberg, the President and CEO of the Alliance for Children and Families, will be speaking to the current image of the voluntary not-for-profit sector and strategies to enhance and improve that image. I really don�t know where we could have found two more highly qualified individuals to assist us in our deliberations on these issues. We will also be spending time examining ways for us as an Association of dedicated and motivated agencies to mutually assure the performance credibility of the services being provided by our member agencies.

If you have any questions or need a registration form, please call the CCA office at 217-528-4409.

The next Downstate Performance Based Work Group is scheduled for Wednesday, October 25, 2000 from 1:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. at DCFS, 628 E. Adams, Springfield. The meeting originally scheduled for September 27 has been cancelled. (MB)

We have received calls from a number of our member agencies expressing concern that they cannot get their staff registered for the licensure exam or prep session because all are filled. We worked with DCFS staff late last week on this issue.

DCFS will provide double the number of sessions beginning next week and will conduct additional prep and testing sessions in Cook County. The sessions will have to be made larger and will be conducted with only one trainer. The main problem is space. DCFS does not have any more space for other sessions in Cook, even though they guarantee they have trainers. They are more easily able to offer the training out at the agencies. Originally, DCFS required that only agencies with 15 staff would be eligible for the on-site training. This has now changed. Agencies with any number of employees who need testing, but with space for 40 trainees can contact DCFS to offer the space. The agency can specify how many of their own staff will be in the training session. DCFS will then put the location and date of the private agency training on the training calendar and will keep track of how many slots are available at that site for other-agency use. Other agencies can then register their staff for the remaining slots. Agencies can also work in tandem with one another to assemble a group of 25 pos staff and DCFS will also send a trainer to the selected agency site to train that cluster of prearranged staff. Agencies should be willing and able to provide the training room at no cost, and to assure their site has the capacity to serve up to 45 trainees for that time period.

An updated calendar will be out to agencies within the next week. Northern Illinois University has been keeping a list of names of staff who have been unable to be registered and were on the overflow list. They should be calling the staff next week to alert them to the additional sessions. However, CCAI suggests agencies double-check this with Northern early next week to assure your staff are indeed on the waiting list and to select the additional date. Please let Marge Berglind know if you continue to experience problems. (MB)

The Foster Care Infrastructure Work Group met in Chicago on September 21, 2000. The following critical issues were addressed: SPECIALIZED FOSTER CARE; COOK PERFORMANCE RESULTS FOR FY'00; ONE WORKER/ONE FAMILY; AND POST-PERMANENCY SUPPORTS.

The DCFS reported that the department was not ready to proceed with standardized program plans or rates in January. They presented an alternate plan with the following components: 1)After July 1, 2001, individual treatment plans will be developed and funded for children in HMR and traditional foster care settings who qualify for specialized services; 2) The revised Level of Care (LOC)Assessment will be implemented statewide on January l, 2001 so that all regions use the same LOC forms and process. Regions will begin to identify clinical staff to conduct these reviews. The LOC forms will be submitted for the final review process once the testing of the medical section is completed. Training will be held in January and February for all field staff regarding the LOC forms and process. Medical testing on the LOC process is currently in place; 3) All cases currently in specialized or treatment foster care will be re-reviewed using the new LOC form. These reviews will take place starting in January; 4) The legacy cases will be re-reviewed beginning in February with the new LOC form but the board rate to the legacy foster parents will not be reduced. The agency's administrative rate will be reduced to traditional or relative rates on cases that no longer quality for specialized care; 5) Cases that have a subsidy agreement written and/or a court date for finalization of adoption will not be stepped down during the re-review process as long as they achieve permanency prior to July 1; 6.) Changes to program plans, contracts, and rates will not be made until July 1. The projected changes for FY'02, however, will be finalized before April.

This plan pursues a different direction than all the discussions with the department during the last 8 months. DCFS staff feel that this plan puts specialized dollars where the child is at while addressing concerns they hear from private agencies that children in relative and traditional care are not getting the services they need. They summarized their previous concern about how the state knows a child is really getting specialized services when the child is in spec care and their concerns about how to judge the quality of private agency spec programs. Private agency reps questioned the feasibility of providing all specialized care within the context of traditional and relative programs. There are profound concerns about agencies' ability to develop an infrastructure for handling high numbers of such cases without the benefit of the infrastructure a higher administrative rate in specialized care would provide. DCFS would not appear to have sufficient infrastructure to develop thousands of wraparound plans. The group questioned why DCFS is not able to hold agencies accountable for the outcomes in their contracts and why the state feels they are unable to assess the work being done in spec programs when agencies are monitored in multiple ways. This would appear to be restricting access to programs for children with special needs.

The group will meet in special session with the DCFS Director in late October to discuss these concerns. In the meantime, it would appear that CCAI agencies should prepare for significant changes in specialized programs and budgets. Those agencies without a specialized contract may see an opportunity to begin to serve children with special needs, but will need to assess their agency's ability to administratively manage and programmatically deliver the necessary services in a Wrap plan for multiple cases in regular programs. DCFS will send a letter to all legacy case foster parents outlining the re-review process. Although their board rate may stay at specialized rates, they will no longer qualify for other "add-in" services only available to specialized children such as extra transportation funds or respite care.

Specialized contract estimated maximum amounts will be adjusted as of January 1 to reflect 12 months of funding, using current utilization levels. New children coming into care between January 1 and June 30 who need specialized services, whether new to the system or stepping down from residential will be referred to existing spec contracts. Although it is unclear what will happen to the spec rates for agencies for children remaining in spec care as of July 1, it would appear an LOC review and wrap plan, if necessary will ultimately be developed for the child.

Permanency results for FY'00 for Cook were reviewed. Overall, the permanency rate in HMR for FY'00 was 35.8%--5% above the 33% target. Twenty four agencies and one DCFS site exceeded the 33% mark and qualify for the bonus. Eight agencies and one DCFS site placed between 26% and 33% meeting the minimum required target. One agency did not meet the 24% minimum target.

The permanency rate in Traditional Foster Care overall was 25.9%, exceeding the 24% target. Thirty agencies exceeded the 24% mark and qualify for the bonus. Fourteen agencies and three DCFS sites placed below the 24% mark. The pattern is similar to that shown in HMR as it entered its third year. DCFS reports that it anticipates intake in Traditional sufficient to provide full intake for any agency above the 20% performance level.

DCFS has not yet made any decisions pertaining to contracts which did not meet minimum targets for FY'00.

Private agency members of the work group expressed concern that the performance success is going to be hard to sustain. Cases left in the system will not easily go to permanency and children coming into care have more intense problems, making permanency more difficult and longer to achieve. The group did agree that the major challenge of the future in performance contracting will be the level of reunification. This is still the least used permanency option. There also needs to be further discussion about the future of performance contracting in such an environment, as well as the future of foster care in which adolescents in care form a higher percentage of every agency's caseload. The issue of foster home resources and agency capacity will need to be addressed, since the group speculates that there is minimal capacity in waiting for the types of children coming into care or children who are not readily achieving permanency. Agencies should receive copies of the overall performance results when they receive notification of the final reconciliation results. Members that require the Cook results list can obtain a copy from the Springfield CCAI office.

DCFS staff presented their concern that there is still a goal of One Worker/One Family to be met this program year. The group discussed the barriers associated with this concept and developed the following action plan: 1) AP will look at all apparent split cases showing up on CYCIS. Agencies will receive a printout with these lists and will have the opportunity to correct any misinformation. 2) AP will study the reasons for the splits with the involved agencies. 3) For cases split across programs but within the same agency, there must be a plan for in-agency consolidation by January 1. 4) The next batch of cases for consolidation will be those split between an agency and DCFS. 5) The final batch will be split cases involving POS agencies. For cases split across agencies or between agencies/DCFS, the ACR will assist in recommending the primary agency for family reporting responsibilities. An ad hoc group of the foster care work group will look at this issue, examine lists from DCFS and make recommendations to the group for guidelines to use in decision-making for the worker to be the worker-of-record on the split cases.

The group agreed on the final parameters for this new program component. Agencies will submit a brief plan by December 1 that outlines how they will provide the 2 required program elements for each area of the state in which they provide foster care: Information and Referral Line and Information/Education Support Groups. A full year's funding will be available if an agency's plan is submitted by December 1. The funding for FY'02 may remain at the current level although it will need to be used to support 12 months of service, so agencies should anticipate how they will provide the program for the total fee for 19 months of service. An agency that submits a plan after December 1 will receive a decreased funding amount based on the annual amount prorated. All agencies are asked to provide this service for their clients, or to make network or sub-contract arrangements with other arrangements. An agency that chooses not to submit a plan and chooses not to request funding is entitled to do so, but will be contacted by DCFS to determine the reasons. Letters and guidelines for the required plan will be mailed by DCFS to all agencies within a week. (MB)

The Child Welfare Advisory Committee met in Chicago and Springfield via videoconference on September 20. DCFS staff reported on the status of the JCAR review of the Direct Service Worker Employee License Rule (See report elsewhere in this issue.) They also reported on Governor Ryan's Illinois Workforce Advantage (IWA) plan to intensify positive human impacts of state programs in 6 distressed but resilient communities through co-location of programs, stronger coordination and expanded access for individuals and families to information and communication technology. Anticipated outcomes include: increased child immunization rates, lower rates of juvenile crime and delinquency, increased economic self-sufficiency of individuals and families, improved graduation rates and specific community-related outcomes. The centerpiece of the program will be creation of virtual family resource centers which can be based in local organizations. The targeted communities are Englewood, North Lawndale, Humboldt Park, Harvey, East St. Louis and the "Southern Seven" counties. This plan could provide opportunities for CCA agencies that run programs or are based in these areas. A copy of the summary of the plan can be obtained from the CCAI Springfield office. Further information on the plan can be obtained from Richard Kordesh, IWA Director, Office of the Governor, 312-814-3967.

Committee reports from SED (See Monday Report of August 28,) Finance and Administration (See this elsewhere in this issue) and SACWIS(See multiple Monday Reports of past few weeks) were provided. The work group of SED which will look at the Restraints issue will soon be convened and make recommendations for Rule 384 regarding clinically appropriate models of restraint for varying populations of children. The Family Preservation committee has begun deliberations of key questions: 1) what type of intact family should be opened for DCFS services? 2) What is the extent of the state's responsibility for families once initial problems that led to DCFS intervention are resolved? 3) Who is to be served by DCFS and how is it paid for? What does the typical case look like that DCFS will always be required to serve?

DCFS is still receiving comments from agencies on the Unusual Incident Reporting format. Although the deadline for comments has officially passed, DCFS will accept comments for the next few days. We encourage all agencies to review the UIR plan and manuals and submit their comments to DCFS. CCAI still has received copies of agency comments from only 3 agencies. We don't know if this is because agencies have not copied us, or because agencies have not submitted comments. We urge you to e-mail or fax copies of your comments to Marge Berglind so CCAI can be assured that any revisions to the UIR plan are reflective of agency concerns. In Cook County, the public guardian is now requesting notification of all unusual incidents.

DCFS provided copies of its proposed system of review of private agency foster homes and protocol for placing contracts on-hold. CCAI has already provided detailed responses and objections to this plan. Members of the board and Cook agency executives who attended the special meeting on September 7 have already received copies of the DCFS proposal and CCAI's response. DCFS is seeking additional input from CWAC members.

Caseworker foundation training concerns were addressed. Private agency members raised concerns with DCFS about how the decision was made to require all private agency staff to attend a mandatory 20 day training before they can be assigned a case. Questions were also raised on the decision made by DCFS that only the Educational Partners (universities) will be the authorized providers. Although the group has advocated for equal access to IV-E funds for training opportunities, there is no equal applicability regarding the reimbursement of salary expenses such as DCFS has. There is still inequity in the proposed training plan which requires private agency staff to be carried for at least a month, but unavailable for casework, without the funds for offsetting the cost of this endeavor. There appears to be no recognition of private agencies' ability to provide their own training for their own staff. The group requested that this be discussed more fully at the next CWAC meeting.

Proposed policy guide for Caseworker Contacts was discussed. DCFS has issued a draft policy for comment by CWAC. The policy requires 2 contacts per month for all unlicensed relative homes until the home is licensed and requires workers document a number of tasks relating to pursuit of licensing on each visit. CCAI has submitted written comments to DCFS objecting to this proposed policy. Private sector members of CWAC questioned why DCFS issued a draft policy and never discussed their plan to do this with CWAC. DCFS outlined their reasons for the policy. The number of unlicensed relatives is increasing, the percentage of relatives that ever achieve licensed status is decreasing and the number of complaints and incidents in these unlicensed homes is increasing. They felt that additional contacts by workers would help offset these problems. The private sector members agreed these were serious problems and that such problems are systemic and should be discussed in the overall CWAC process. The policy, however, does not appear to be the right solution to the problems outlined. It is unrealistic for workers and does not recognize the additional costs incurred with additional visits. (MB)

CWAC Finance and Administration met in Springfield on September 19. Discussion on excess revenue appears headed towards a conclusion for programs with rates set based on audited costs. Private sector and DCFS representatives agreed in concept that there should be a provision for maintaining of some excess revenue, similar to that allowed as "profit" for for-profit contractors. The exact way to implement the concept still remains in discussion.

Discrepancies on various understandings of Bed Hold procedures for Medicaid programs were discussed. A federal audit found that DCFS could not seek Medicaid funding for periods of time in which services were not delivered to a child due to a bed-hold. There will need to be procedures formalized for how bed-holds are applied and the extended.

Children on home pass type stays are also reimbursed under Medicaid. In this case, the agency will need to describe in the treatment plan what services are to be provided while the child is at home, and will need to be able to document these in order to keep the payment for that period of time.

Agencies with Medicaid funding should have recently received a letter from DCFS outlining the separation of Medicaid portions from board portions and working with the MBS system on fee-for-service billing. If your agency has not received such correspondence related to your Medicaid contract, contact Roy Miller (217-524-1510.) Thanks to chair, Arlene Happach for this report. (MB)

The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) of the legislature met with DCFS on September 19 to evaluate the second proposed draft of the licensing rule for child welfare workers. JCAR rejected that portion of the DCFS rule that involves the appointment of a Licensing Board, stating that DCFS has no statutory authority to create such a board. DCFS will need to submit legislation in the next session seeking creation of such a board. The rest of the licensing rule as we reported in last week's Monday Report will go forward for implementation.

We remind all agencies that the licensure deadline for current staff is also approaching. All current staff must quality for licensure by January 1 in order to carry cases. They must hold the required degrees as outlined in child welfare agency licensing standards, pass the background checks, and must have passed the licensing exam. All agency execs recently received a print out from DCFS that lists all staff in the agency who passed the exam. We encourage agencies to double check the results, cross check this against their direct service employee roster and assure that all current staff with positions that require licensure have passed the exam, or have the exam on their schedule within the next 60 days. Staff cannot put off taking the test. If they fail, the opportunities for re-testing become increasingly scarce as we head into the final quarter of this year. We encourage agencies to allow ample study time and mentoring for any current staff who have taken the test once and failed. They will need much preparation and support to assure they pass on the second chance. (MB)

The development of Best Practices guidelines for child welfare is a critical goal of the DCFS administration. An important section of the Best Practices initiative is still in the development phase and private agencies have the opportunity to contribute to philosophy and materials at this point. The Best Practices Licensing and Development Committee is currently working on a variety of issues, including guidelines for foster homes, foster parent training, assessment, licensing standards and practice for Agencies, Group Homes and Institutions. The committee will work for 2 days on October 10 and 11 in Joliet. The committee will seek the advice and input from private agencies on what DCFS best practice should be as their staff pursue licensing of child welfare agencies, group homes and institutions. Some of the key topics to be covered in this 2 day session will be: service needs assessment, licensing process, staff qualifications, DD facilities, interface of licensing capacity and utilization of program, accreditation and deemed status, foster homes functioning as group homes and inspections. Those CCAI members that have already volunteered for this topic will receive correspondence later this week outlining the details. We have also extended the invitation to a other CCAI members whose background and expertise suggests they would be valuable in this effort. Any final volunteers for this 2-day meeting should contact Best Practices liaison, Mary Debose of CHASI at 312-424-6803.

The same Best Practices committee will also be seeking input into the development of foster family licensing issues. CCAI will convene a Focus Group of Foster Care managers on October 30 to review this material and provide evaluation to the committee chairs. Invitations to the focus group will go out later this week. Due to the intensive nature of the focus group we must limit participation to 20 members whose expertise and program experience is representative of the private sector. There will be opportunities later in the best practice process for all CCAI agency members to review the full draft document as well as to review previously developed permanency work materials. For further information, call Marge Berglind at 312-819-1950 or Mary Debose at 312-424-6803. (MB)

Despite education reform legislation passed several years ago that ensures a minimum per capita for school districts, Superintendent Max McGee is going back to the drawing board to "conduct a school funding study for the funding of Pre-K through 12 education in Illinois." A solicitation for an RFP to conduct the study of the Illinois� educational system was posted on the ISBE website in September. An informational meeting for potential bidders will be held September 26 in Chicago. The overhaul of special education funding is not specifically listed in the details of the study (BRH).

I am pleased to report that the Board of Directors has developed a framework for the CEO search process at its 9/19 board meeting. Here are the highlights:

I will give you periodic updates, as will your board linker. Any input is very much welcomed! Nancy Ronquillo.

The CCA Board of Directors met last week in Chicago. A full report of the Board�s minutes will be posted on the Association�s web-site once they are completed. In summary the Board agenda included the following:

Rick Velasquez, Executive Director of Youth Outreach Services, has been asked to serve on the Board of Directors to complete the term of Diane Yost who recently resigned from the Board due to a job change. The Board also took a minute to remember Ray Fannings, former chair of the CCA Board and past Executive Director of the Chicago Child Care Society, for his outstanding service to the children and families of Illinois.

The Board reviewed and approved its workplan for the year. Under the Carve Model of Policy Based Governance, the Board is responsible for the development and implementation of its annual work plan. Within the context of that Plan, the Board also discussed the work of its Ad Hoc Committee on Quality and Performance Credibility. There was extensive discussion concerning current member agency expectations and criteria , and the Board and Association role in fostering quality in its member agencies. There was discussion on the impact that the high level of turnover in the private sector is having on quality assurance as well as the impact of the unequal access to training resources between public and private sectors. In the context of the discussion, agencies were urged to utilized their quality assurance staff to do random checks of their foster homes.

The Board also discussed the continue refinement of its newly established Board-to-Member Link program. An Ad Hoc Committee was established to look into this issue and is recommending that we look at ways to verify that the link is actually happening between Board members and the three or four agencies they are assigned to "link" with. We will be setting up an e-mail link for each Board member with their link agencies as well as a reporting system for the Board to know how well the process is working. We want to maximize the use of this process to utilize it more effectively for legislative and public policy issues as well as the sharing of information to and from the membership.

The Board also discussed the Search Process that has been put in place to find a new President/CEO for the membership upon Ron Moorman�s resignation next July. A fuller report from the President of the CCA Board can be found elsewhere in this Monday Report. There will be an on-going process for keeping the full membership fully apprised of the progress of this effort.

Staff expressed concern over the fact that to-date we have only received back the completed data survey that we sent out recently from about 50% of our member agencies. That is very discouraging, particularly in light of the continued articulated need from the membership for more information on the impact of the services of the private sector. We can only make that statement if we get complete data from all of our member agencies. CCA staff intend to continue to contact agencies which have not yet submitted this data. We are planning on getting a 100% from the membership and will nicely but firmly continue these contacts until we reach that mark. We will also be using the Board-to-Member Link process to accomplish this goal.

As noted above, a full Board report will be posted on the Association�s "Members Only" portion of its website as soon as that report is completed (RHM)

We want to urge those of you with Foster Care and In-Home Service programs to remind the families you are working with about the steps they can take to avoid this serious problem. SIDS is the unexplained death of an infant between the ages of one month and one year, usually between one month and four months. It strikes about 3000 babies yearly. Babies most at risk are those who sleep on their stomachs, whose mothers smoke during pregnancy, who live in a home where there are smokers, whose mothers are teenagers when they have their first child, whose mothers had little or no prenatal care, or low birth-weight babies. Ways to reduce the risk---breast feed if possible, get routine well baby health care including immunizations, do not allow smoking around the baby, try to keep young babies away from crowds and people with colds. Position the baby on his/her back when sleeping, use a firm mattress--no waterbeds, do not use fluffy blankets, comforters, pillows, or stuffed animals under or around the baby, keep the baby warm but not too warm. PLEASE ASK YOUR WORKERS TO TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO PASS THIS MESSAGE ON TO THE FAMILIES THEY WORK WITH. A FEW MINUTES TAKEN CAN RESULT IN YOUNG LIVES SAVED! Thanks for your help! (RHM)

With the completion of the regional POS meetings, the final steps took place to start the process for the procurement of SACWIS equipment by the private agencies that will be using the SACWIS system. 237 people from 100 agencies attended the meetings. Only 13 agencies impacted by SACWIS did not attend and have been contacted about the process. Plan Part 1 has been mailed to all private agencies that are expected to use SACWIS. Plan Part 1 included the DCFS estimate of how many "seats" each agency should have. Seats are based on established ratios of case counts per caseload, and/or, BATs and BARCs. These documents are to be returned to DCFS around October 2^nd.

The results of Plan Part 1 will be: 1.) The total number of SACWIS funded seats statewide. This number will be used to determine the dollars per seat reimbursement amount. 2.) The total number of sites, and the number of users at each site. This will determine the connection requirements for the servers. 3.) The total of number of private agency funded SACWIS seats. This, together with the number of funded seats, determines the total number of licenses required at the terminal server. 4.) The total number of SACWIS users. This number impacts the training scheduled for office automation and SACWIS, as well as determining the size requirements of the terminal servers.

The dollars per seat and the site information will be returned to the private agencies so that they begin development of Plan Part 2. Plan Part 2 is the actual 3-year planning process for getting each agency ready to use SACWIS. These plans are due back to DCFS by the end of December. Reimbursement for expenditures cannot start until Plan Part 2 is agreed upon and appropriate contract issues are resolved for each agency.

As the process to implement SACWIS equipment with the POS agencies has begun, the vendor (American Management Systems) has begun meetings to start the design of the software application. Many POS agencies have provided staff to date to attend these meetings and provide input on system design and how it would impact private agencies. In order to provide additional background information to those participants regarding issues surrounding SACWIS and discuss the experiences to date from participation in these meetings, CCA held a meeting on Sept. 18^th in Chicago. A brief status report was provided about SACWIS and the POS involvement in the project to date. What was the role of the SACWIS Advisory Committee? What are some of the ongoing issues the Advisory Committee has worked on over the past several years and how might that impact the design meetings. Most of the meeting provided the opportunity for people to report what happened at the meetings they attended related to: intake and investigation, case assignment, case management, resource and licensing, financial, eligibility, staff maintenance, court processing, ACR, health tracking, archiving and interfaces. From this discussion it was recommended that the private agencies conduct focus groups around these areas to identify issues that then would be raised during the next round of meetings for the application development. Some of the common issues included: who should be responsible for inputting the information based on the source of the data, how much information on private agencies is too much in the system, how much of SACWIS will be used by DCFS for activities beyond SACWIS. The issues identified at this meeting will serve as a starting point for those focus groups that get formed. (JMS)

Goal of 100% set for CCA Membership Survey Returns
The majority of CCA members have returned the CCA Membership Survey, which was due August 30. However, our goal of 100% response, which is critical for this data to be truly representative, has not yet been met. For those who need another copy of the form, it can be downloaded as an MSWord document from the CCA website�s library, or obtained by calling CCA at 217-528-4409.

Findings of the recent E-Communications Survey are now available to the CCA membership in the CCA website�s library as a downloadable document.

Does your agency have an innovative program or recent success story that you�d like to share? Contact Linda Lenzini at CCA with the details. (LLL)

Private Agency representatives who attended the SACWIS sessions for Best Practice and SACWIS design were invited to review their sessions at the SACWIS DESIGN REVIEW MEETING on September 18 at the Naperville Holiday Inn Select. The SACWIS committee members were also in attendance to help assess the issues that were raised by the volunteers of the SACWIS sessions.

The different Session Topic Areas that were discussed included:

1. Assignment
2. Archive
3. Technical
4. Case Management
5. Court Processing
6. ACR
7. Resource
8. Eligibility
9. Finance
10. Staff Maintenance
11. Administration
12. Intake/Investigation
13. QA

The issues will be summarized and posted at the new upcoming SACWIS Reporter site that will be accessible through the CCA web site. Steve Bradshaw, POS SACWIS liaison is summarizing this meeting and other past meetings for CCA. The main concerns were that the AMS representatives were not able to handle issues brought up by the POS agencies during these sessions. Many times the POS representatives were told that concerns were not going to be addressed until later, but with no solid date or definitive feedback routes, the private agencies were in doubt that there concerns would ever be addressed. Also, the need for both Downstate and Cook county agencies to be identified as very different organizations by DCFS and AMS was a concern. Downstate and Cook, in their court processes and other systems, are so different that future mandatory procedures have to be flexible enough to be handle both.

The Major POS Issues across the board are:

The SACWIS meeting scheduled for October 3^rd will be examining these issues. (RJS)

Calendar:

Sept. 27-29 � "Practical Strategies 2000: Help Along the Way: A Continuum of Support for Youth and

Families", Holiday Inn, Urbana, IL. For more information call: 217-355-5990.

Oct. 2 � CCA POS Monitoring Committee, The Baby Fold, Normal, IL. 10-2

Oct. 3 � CWAC SACWIS Advisory Committee Meeting, River Forest

Oct. 5-6 � CCA�s Fall Leadership Retreat, (attendance limited to CEO�s/Executive Directors and

executive level staff) The Lodge, Oak Brook

Oct. 6-7 - The 10^th Annual Retreat for Educators of Students with Behavioral Disorders sponsored by

ICCBD, Monticello, IL.

Oct. 18 � CWAC Medicaid Advisory Committee

Oct. 19 � Healthy Families Illinois Policy and Advocacy Committee, Chicago and Conference Call

Oct. 26-27 - "Governor�s Workforce Development Conference," Crowne Plaza Hotel, Springfield.

Contact the following for more information: Barb Senalik, Illinois Department of Employment Security, Job Training Division, 325 West Adams St, 3^rd Floor, Springfield IL 62704-1892.

Nov. 1-4 - The International Adolescent Conference, Portland Oregon; Call (651) 484-5510

Nov. 15 � CCAI Board of Directors Meeting, Springfield

Nov. 17-20 - The Teaching-Family Association Conference: "Circle of Courage" �Call: 540-370-4439

Feb. 25-28 � 14^th Annual Conference, A System of Care for Children�s Mental Health: Expanding the

Research Base, Tampa Hyatt Regency, Tampa, Fl. Call Lyn Bryan at 813/974-4649 for information.